Betrayal

9

Akari-San woke up in a cold sweat. Shooting up from her bed, she immediately fell down, tears forming in her eyes. She had been having the same nightmare for the whole week, every time the same thing happening. She managed to stop from completely breaking down, taking deep breaths and thinking only about the pleasant things that she had in her life. She thought about her school and her friends, but that train of thought led her straight to Nishikata, who was undoubtedly her greatest friend she had at the school. Thinking about him, after the dream she had, caused her to fall into another fit of sobs. She realized that she had made a terrible mistake, but it was too late to turn back now.

The sun-rays snuck through his curtains, annoying Nishikata. He turned over in his bed, his face pressing into his phone, cold as it was. Sighing loudly, he pulled his phone out from under his face and turned it on to check the time. What he saw staring back at him was a photo of Takagi-San. He cringed. He had completely forgotten he had set that as his background, and he hadn't changed it after the accident. Not in the mood for dealing with her, he turned his phone off and tried to go back to sleep, only to be woken back up by his mother less than 5 minutes later.

Takagi-San also hadn't gotten a good night's sleep, as she woke up at 3 in the morning, freezing cold and scared. She had had a nightmare, in which Nishikata had tried to protect her from a monster, but all that happened was that he was gruesomely killed, his limbs torn from his body right in front of her. As she looked up at the monster, she could see that its face was identical to Akari-San's. She awoke at that moment, tears already raining out of her eyes. Her mother woke up to her crying, quickly rushing into her room, making sure that her daughter was okay. This was the first time in a while that she had had a nightmare so bad it caused her to start crying loudly, and it made her mother worried. After making sure she was okay, her mother went back to sleep and told Takagi-San to do the same, but she struggled and eventually, she just gave up on sleep altogether. All she could do was cry.

All three of them arrived at school at the same time and, to the surprise of their respective friends, all ignored each other. Both girls knew that talking to Nishikata would only make themselves hurt more, and secretly, they both wanted to see if the other would do anything to him whilst they were not speaking to him. Just before class started, Nishikata snuck off to the hiding place that his friends had told him about and slid down the wall.

As he landed, he sighed. He had a feeling that today was going to be a long day for him.